INCREASINGLY powerful judges are using European Union diktats to rebel against Britain's elected politicians by introducing controversial new laws, the head of the UK's Supreme Court has warned.

Lord Neuberger said judges were using EU law to usurp the power of MPs

Lord Neuberger claimed his colleagues in the judiciary were pushing ahead with contentious political and social reforms while MPs were effectively paralysed by a desire to win re-election by avoiding a row.

And he argued that legislation made in Brussels - which takes precedence over British laws - allowed lawyers to usurp the power of democratically-elected representatives in the UK.

Judges are free to act without fear of losing their seat but in the process are wresting power from elected politicians, warned Britain's most powerful judge.

The need to offer oneself for re-election sometimes makes it hard to make unpopular, but correct, decisions

Lord Neuberger

In a speech made public for the first time, he said: "The legislature is sometimes too divided or too uncertain to take difficult or unpopular decisions and the courts therefore may be tempted to step in."

He highlighted the assisted dying laws as an example of where politicians had been afraid to act but where judges were keen to stamp their mark.

Lord Neuberger, 67, said: "The Supreme Court's general message was that Parliament should properly face up to this issue, and if it did not the courts might have to step in."

PA

The president of the Supreme Court was speaking in Guildford

He added: "The need to offer oneself for re-election sometimes makes it hard to make unpopular, but correct, decisions.

"At times it can be an advantage to have an independent body of people who do not have to worry about short term popularity."

EU rules mean European law is superior to the national laws of member states.

But judges are also using Tony Blair's Human Rights Act to circumvent parliament, Lord Neuberger argued.

The Tories want a British Bill of Rights to replace the Act, which controversially wrote the European Convention on Human Rights into British law.

Senior judges have spoken out about assisted dying rules which MPs have failed to reform

The peer also highlighted other factors that work to undermine the authority of MPs in Parliament.

Those included Scottish and Welsh devolution, the power of the office of Prime Minister - greatly expanded under Mr Blair's leadership - and the increasing use of judicial review of Government decisions.

But in making the speech, the Supreme Court president said he did not support the increasing power of the judiciary but merely wanted to recognise it.

"I am trying to describe, not to praise, what has been happening," he said.

He also claimed a generation of rebellious lawyers who had grown up in the 1960s and '70s were now acting to shape society.

He said: "Today's judges grew up in the questioning and disrespectful '60s and '70s, and that affects the judicial outlook quite a bit.

"In that, judges are not wrongly indulging in their private opinions, but rightly reflecting the general fundamental values and assumptions of contemporary society."